Tag: Africaglobalvillage

Scenes on the street and a market in the Nigerien capital of Niamey. Despite little sign of the first of a three-day mourning after attacks by suspected jihadists killed 58 people near the Mali border, residents and a community leader express condemnation and shock at the killings. On Monday afternoon, “groups of armed, still unidentified individuals intercepted four vehicles carrying… Read More

Tanzanians on the street speak with sadness on the death of President John Magufuli. The head of state died Wednesday aged 61 from a heart condition, his vice president said, after more than five years of divisive, authoritarian rule capped by his refusal to take COVID-19 seriously. Authorities have cracked down on free speech, leaving many fearful to comment on… Read More

John Magufuli was the fifth president of Tanzania since its independence in 1961. He was elected president for the first time in October 2015, with 58% of the vote and succeeded Jakaya Kikwete – enjoying a high approval rating. His party, the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which has been in power since the country’s independence, chose him to represent it… Read More

An Italian court on Wednesday acquitted energy groups Eni and Shell of $1.1-billion corruption charges related to an oil exploration deal in Nigeria in the biggest corruption scandal in the industry. The long-running case concerns the 2011 purchase by Eni and Shell of a giant offshore oilfield in Nigeria estimated to hold nine billion barrels of crude. Prosecutors alleged the… Read More

Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko died Wednesday following cancer treatment in a German hospital, President Alassane Ouattara said in a statement. Bakayoko had turned 56 on Monday. Ouattara called Bakayoko “my son and close collaborater, torn from us too soon,” in a statement read on public television RTI. Bakayoko took over as prime minister in July last year from… Read More

Kenya’s High Court voted to uphold a ban on female genital mutilation on Tuesday after a petition was filed by a female doctor to leaglise it. In Kenya, four million girls and women have undergone FGM, the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The country outlawed the practice in 2011. In 2017, DR… Read More

Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli is dead. In a televised address on Thursday night, Tanzania vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan said that Magufuli had died of heart complications. “It is with great regret that I inform you that today, 17 March 2021, at 18:00, we have lost our courageous leader, President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania,” said Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania… Read More

Cloaked with animal skins, several hundred men in traditional warrior clothes are paying their last farewells to the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini who died on Friday at the Nongoma morgue in South Africa. The remains of the leader, who died at the age of 72 after serving for 50 years, will be buried (“planted” as referred to in Zulu tradition)… Read More

The UN on Tuesday called for a probe into a fire that killed dozens of migrants at a holding facility in Yemen’s capital, after Human Rights Watch said it was started by Huthi rebels. The rights group said the detainees — most of them Ethiopian — had been protesting against overcrowding on March 7 when camp guards rounded up hundreds… Read More

Tunisian President Kais Saied began a state visit on Wednesday to neighbouring Libya, a key economic partner that descended into chaos in 2011 before recently embarking on a promising transition process. Mr Saied was welcomed at the airport of the western capital Tripoli by the President of the Presidential Council Mohamed al-Manfi. The official programme includes talks with al-Manfi and… Read More